Schoolchildren in Westbury, Johannesburg — some as young as 12 — have become an integral part of drug-dealing rackets and in many cases are making enough cash to be the breadwinners for their destitute families.
“We are dealing with a massive drug issue in our schools,” one teacher told the Sunday Times this week. “That includes dealing and using. There’s organised crime within the school community in terms of drugs.”
The teacher said each grade had a designated dealer.
“Last year we caught a learner that was the grade 8 seller at the school. What also came to light was that the family was not doing well financially and he was the breadwinner. He was making R150 a day, of which he paid R100 to the supplier and R50 to his mother to run the household.”
This week the township in western Johannesburg — where the two major gangs fighting for turf are the Fast Guns and the Varados — was again plunged into violence with a spate of shootings, many of them within a 2km radius of the three primary schools and one high school in the area.
Teachers, principals and residents who spoke to the Sunday Times asked to remain anonymous.
They said it was an open secret that drug dealers used girls and young boys as drug “mules” while high school boys were recruited to sell drugs.
High-school teachers have found that consumption of edible marijuana products such as brownies or gums is common among their pupils.
The modus operandi for high-school deliveries is that the “parcel” will be thrown over the fence, the pupil will get a text message with the location and will then ask to go to the bathroom. En route to the bathroom, the pupil will pick up the package.
Teachers said children as young as 11 have started using drugs such as dagga, “lean” — codeine-based cough syrup mixed with cold drink — and Xanax, prescription medication used to treat anxiety, panic disorders and depression. A single tablet costs about R2.
Schools in the area include Newclare Primary, Dowling Primary, Everest Primary, Westbury Primary and Westbury Secondary and Chris J Botha Secondary.
“We have 12-year-olds selling drugs on the corners. There was a 15-year-old running a lucrative business from the corner, he has since moved to Waterval because [a rival gang] didn’t want him there,” one teacher said.
“His business and life were in danger and he was forced to move. There’s a new seller on that corner. The people who bring him the product are grown men, he handles the money and the product.
“Parents are not the heads of home, it’s these children who are the heads because they’re the ones bringing in the money. We have 13-year-old breadwinners. This isn’t the exception, it’s the norm,” the teacher said.
We also have situations where the parents are alcoholics and so children are exposed to addiction from an early age. It’s a huge problem and it’s widespread
— Solomon Sauls, Freedom Recovery Centre
The gang violence traumatises the young children of Westbury. Two grade 2 boys described their weekend in graphic detail, demonstrating the hand gestures used by the gangs.
“The Fast Guns walk around with guns, I see them,” one of the boys, aged eight, said. “They shot my father and they shot my uncle. I was sitting outside when they shot my uncle, I was scared and I ran in the house. Now I feel bad. I hear the guns all the time, it goes bah! bah! bah!”
His seven-year-old friend added: “I felt sad because they also shot my uncle, I cried. I felt sad and scared. My mother and I were walking, I heard it go boef! boef! and they shot my uncle and so we ran away.”
Sylvester Sauls of the Freedom Recovery Centre, which provides addiction rehabilitation, said he gets five or six calls a day from tearful mothers pleading for help for their teenage sons.
In one incident at Westbury High School a grade 9 boy assaulted his mother while high on cat, an amphetamine. In another case the centre assisted a grade 7 pupil addicted to crystal meth (tik).
“We hear of school kids smoking zol, taking Mylan [Xanax] and drinking lean. Some kids are being abused at home, others are hungry and there’s no food at home.
"We also have situations where the parents are alcoholics and so children are exposed to addiction from an early age. It’s a huge problem and it’s widespread,” Sauls said.
For those who aren’t using drugs there is still the temptation to make cash as a mule. One principal said some boys had been caught with “heavy bags”.
“A child can get R100 a day to drop off a parcel [of drugs] on his way to school. On the day when there’s a raid, the cops will find nothing because these dealers have sent the drugs with the kids to school.
"We’ve found some boys coming to school with heavy bags. That’s the easiest R100 that child is going to make. How does that child say no when there’s no food at home?” said the principal.
Recent cases of gang violence include the killing of Keenan Ebrahim, thought to be the leader of the Fast Guns, on February 23. Another 11 people were shot, two of them fatally, in the aftermath.
Also last month Zaida Fredericks was shot dead outside a Shoprite store in Main Road, 600m away from the Sophiatown police station. In the same week Jonino Robinson was ambushed and killed.
A grade 5 Newclare pupil told the Sunday Times he took his life in his hands walking between his home and the school.
“They shoot all the time, the Fast Guns and the Varados chase each other during the day and at night. It happened again last night; it sounded like bombs and my mother said we must lie on the floor. I’m scared to leave school because I feel safe, I like it here,” the boy said.
A teacher said staff feared for their lives. “You can feel the tension in the area. The community is living in constant fear and anxiety.”
Gauteng education department spokesperson Steve Mabona did not respond to questions.
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